Leave Your Phone In a Taxi? The 311 App Can Help You Find It

Assuming you've got a friend with the app who can help you.

Some of NYC’s famous orphaned iPhone transport vehicles. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

“I left my phone in the cab last night” — it may be a good excuse for dodging texts, but it’s a sucky situation to actually find yourself in.

The NYC 311 app is making it a little easier to find the phones, wallets, purses and other flotsam and jetsam that people leave behind in cabs.

The app is mainly used for utility complaints, alternate side parking FAQs, garbage and recycling schedules and other municipal matters. The new feature is locate within its “Complaints” sidebar, Brokelyn reports. The app really does its job, we imagine, when your iPhone isn’t the thing that’s missing, although you can always borrow a friend’s device to fill out the form.

After realizing you’ve forgotten something, you’ll fill out a form with the details of your ride from the night before and hope that your erstwhile driver cops to having found your stuff. It works best if you know the medallion number of the taxi you used, but that’s not completely necessary, Brokelyn says.

Betabeat is now the newly launched Innovation section of the Observer. All your favorite features and columns—as well as exciting new areas of tech coverage—can now be found at Observer.com/Innovation.

Don't miss the latest and best writing on technology and the future of business innovation. Add the Innovation section to your RSS feed and follow the Observer on Twitter and Facebook.